Quirky Bonsai

For many of us, gardening is the easy endeavour of turning on a hosepipe, tossing some fertilizer into a flower bed or simply standing by while someone else sweats over what is fighting a spirited battle over arid adversity.

The Khomas Bonsai Kai is nothing like the half of us.

Enamoured with the art of bonsai, the Japanese practice of growing a tree in miniature to resemble an aged tree, the Khomas Bonsai Kai presented ‘Quirky Bonsai’ – a collection of their best bonsai trees at the Wilde Eend Nursery to raise funds for the Cancer Association of Namibia last week.

Featuring trees propagated from seeds, cuttings or by layering, the Khomas Bonsai Kai’s miniature trees stood small and proud as a remarkable and rather wonderful little forest boasting bougainvillea, spekboom, olifantsbos, Herero sesame bush, acacia, mopane and other indigenous Namibian trees, some of which are over 30 years old.

Fascinatingly, each bonsai tree was also pruned and cut in a specific style as befits bonsai culture and individual bonsai artists’ preference.

Bernie O’Callaghan revealed himself as a bright bonsai artist in his collection, which included lovely multi-trunk and freestyles. Don Stevenson’s trees were equally enchanting and his windswept and mixed style trees were a stunning sight to see.

Mannetjie Botma’s trees included an eerie rock planting whose central rock somewhat resembled a skull and seemed to remind viewers that bonsai trees are, in fact, art, as did Miems Bartsch’s pierneef style trees which paid homage to the eponymous visual artist.

Wimpie van Zyl’s naked tree in broom style showed off his branchwork and was wonderful at getting one to imagine winter, while Saartjie le Roux’s cascade style offerings dangled delicately and Tillman Wilschke’s gnarled mopane was intricate and intriguing.

Though one could easily imagine tending to a tiny tree is a simple feat, the truth is cultivating a bonsai tree is a meticulous and obsessive thing just shy of madness.

Involving a regular regime of pruning the tree’s roots and crown as well as watering, growth direction and even transplanting, bonsai growing is a finicky and fussy thing that requires each branch be shaped or eliminated until the chosen style is achieved.

The effect is charming.

Looking like specimens straight from Lilliput, the collection was certainly impressive and introduced an alternative collective to casual passersby while presenting excellent progress to the exhibition’s regulars.

The Khomas Bonsai Kai has been exhibiting in aid of the Cancer Association for five years and this bevy of bonsai enthusiasts promises to be back next year.

Smaller and better and than ever. – @marth_vader on Twitter or martha@namibian.com.na